The present invention relates generally to e-commerce systems and methods, and more particularly, e-commerce systems and methods relating to an input device with an e-commerce button useful in conducting e-commerce transactions.
Electronic commerce (or “e-commerce”) refers to the buying and selling of goods and/or services using electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Using e-commerce channels, retailers, manufacturers, and distributors can market and sell goods and/or services to consumers and purchasers through online stores having virtual storefronts. Commonly, consumers access these online stores using, for example, a web browser. More recently, consumers are able to access these online stores through storefronts within applications, for example, a virtual store within a videogame or some virtual environment, a dedicated e-commerce application, or any other application in which a user is presented with purchasing opportunities.
The selection of goods and/or services from the electronic catalogs within the online stores may use a “shopping cart” model. When the consumer selects goods and/or services from the electronic catalog, the online store adds those goods and/or services to the consumer's virtual shopping cart. When the consumer is done selecting goods and/or services, the goods and/or services in the shopping cart may be reviewed and ultimately purchased. To purchase the items in the shopping cart, the consumer provides his/her billing and shipping information. The entire process of purchasing goods and/or services from an online store typically require many interactions from the consumer (e.g., adding goods and/or services to a shopping cart, reviewing the shopping cart, adding billing and shipping information, and confirming the purchase).
E-commerce retailers have taken steps to simplify this process. For example, by allowing purchasers to create user accounts at the online store, the online store can automatically-populate the consumer's billing and shipping information. Nevertheless, the process is still often time consuming and cumbersome. This problem is made worse for purchases made from within application in which the consumer is immersed in another activity, for example, playing a videogame or consuming streaming media. When videogame player is immersed in gameplay and presented a purchasing opportunity, it is often undesirable for the videogame player to interrupt gameplay to go through the steps of purchasing the item. Similarly, when a user is consuming a media stream (for example, an Internet video or audio stream) and is presented with a purchasing opportunity, it may be undesirable to the user to interrupt the media stream to purchase the item. The present invention addresses these and other problems in conducting e-commerce transactions.